Lands of the Broken Reaches
The Shepherd's Valley The Shepherd's Valley nestles in the shadow of some of the largest and most impassable rock formations of the Black Karst. Watered by the few streams that flow down from the Raven Hills, most of the valley is still quite wild: it is only around Duke Edouard's capital of Alvarran that the valley people have given up the herdsman's life for more settled agriculture. Coarse jokes about the precise relationship the people of Shepherd's Valley have with their sheep are common in the lands over the hills. The road that runs through Alvarran, however, is far more cosmopolitan. Funnelled through a narrow cleft in the Black Karst at Pieter's Pass, whoever controls the pass controls half the trade routes to the south. It is also the safest and best-kept road for people coming from the north: in summer, Alvarran is often crowded with travellers and merchants from the different nations of the Old World. Towns of the Shepherd's Valley: Alvarran Elmridge Hartmut's Fall The Raven Hills Tall, craggy and forbidding, the Raven Hills breed craggy and forbidding folk. Insular and primitive, they have dwelt in the hills for as long as any of the lowlanders can remember. The hills provide poor living, and through much of the Broken Reaches' history the hill tribes have depended upon raiding their neighbours for survival. Many border princes have asserted dominion over them: none have succeeded in changing their nature. More than a few have met their end trying, their bones picked clean by the ravens that give the hills their name. Life in the hills is short, and the hill tribes have developed a morbid religious sensibility, venerating Morr above all other gods. Some outsiders who have visited have brought back queer tales of strange rituals and customs quite divorced from any worship of Morr known in the civilised lands of the north. Towns of the Raven Hills: Morr's Seat Greasy Drop The Uplands Situated on a shelving plateau to the north-east, the Uplands sit with their back to the World's Edge Mountains. On a clear day, it is said that from the tower of Bunthafen one can see the smoking peak of Thunder Mountain - the volcano the dwarfs call Karag Dron. Like Shepherd's Valley, the Uplands are a gateway to the north. Unfortunately, the road that runs north from Bunthafen runs close to the mountains: merchants from Tilea and the Empire prefer to take the Alvarran road, where they have less chance of being abducted by Night Goblins. Those who do come by the east road come infrequently and in armed caravans. Dwarfs sometimes come with them: the World's Edge are the dwarfs' home territory, and it is said that they were the ones that built the road in the days of their empire. Towns of the Uplands: Putbad Jaardorf Bunthafen The Downlands The jewel of the Broken Reaches, the Downlands are a fertile flood plain surrounding the broad sweep of the river Azril as it makes its way down from the Karst and into the Bracken Mere. Border princes have warred over these lands for as long as anyone can remember; fortunately, their battles have generally been too small and petty to do any lasting damage to the land itself. Sitting in the centre of the Downlands is the town of Savonne. The largest and richest for miles around, it sits on a lode of gemstones that some say the dwarfs first opened up, centuries ago. Dominating the fertile countryside and sitting squarely in the centre of overland and river-bound trade routes, it is the prize every prince of the Reaches aspires to conquer. Despite the formidable natural defences of the Black Karst and the Giant's Teeth, most of them do not hold onto it for very long. Towns of the Downlands: Savonne Selsan Arrow Heap Ravenskird The Thornwood South of the Downlands, the Thornwood sprawls over a far larger region than it ought to. Covering rolling hills and hollows with a carpet of forest, many princes have seen it as a resource to be harvested. Most of them have been disappointed: the trees do not grow as tall or as straight as honest northern trees, and their wood splits and warps at the least opportunity. Most attempts to settle in or around the forest have met with limited success, as the soil is surprisingly poor. This is particularly pronounced in the forest's southern reaches, where the woods are wildest and humans seldom walk. Despite its ill reputation, the road from Savonne runs south through the Thornwood. Perhaps this is simply because it has no choice, other than to plunge into the Bracken Mere and sink. The recent discovery of gold at Handrich's Cross, however, has given many people an incentive to take the forest road. Towns of the Thornwood: Painford Rivermouth The Hidden Vale Nestled between the rolling hills of the Thornwood and the jagged rocks of the Black Karst, the Hidden Vale represents one last strip of fertile land before the badlands of the south. Although tiny, its size and position make it highly defensible, and the recent discovery of gold at Handrich's Cross has made it highly profitable too. Funnily enough, throughout much of the history of the Broken Reaches, the Hidden Vale has gone untenanted by any major warlord. Some attribute this to its obscurity, claiming that it is possible for a man to walk within half a mile of the Vale on either side without even realising it is there. Others say there is something unwholesome in the water or the soil that drives people away. The inhabitants of the Vale do have a reputation for congenital madness, but most attribute this to inbreeding. Towns of the Vale: Manann's Keep Handrich's Cross Last Water Sheltered by a crescent of high ridges from the surrounding Iron Claw Hills, Last Water is an island of green vegetation and fresh water in the midst of an arid wasteland. So called because it is the last opportunity for travellers to stock up on water before entering the Badlands proper, the black soil of the region is curiously fertile in comparison to its neighbouring lands. A few small streams flow down off what the locals call the Black Hills, making some limited agriculture possible. The peace of Last Water, however, is fragile. With the Iron Claw Hills before them, the Pale Waste to the west, and the limitless expanse of the Badlands at their back, the people of Last Water must be ever on their guard for greenskin raids. Two narrow roads connect them to the wider world - without these arteries of trade, life in Last Water would be even harder than it already is. Towns of Last Water: Mirino Sermena Isolici The Iron Claw Hills An arid expanse of scrubland, broken by rocky ridges and low, rolling hills, the Iron Claw Hills are the last boundary between the rest of the Reaches and the Badlands beyond. As such, they are infested with greenskins - namely, the Orcs of the Iron Claw tribe, and their goblin retainers. This is the fearsome clan that spawned Gorbad Ironclaw, and if the orcs beyond the hills were to unite, they would pose a military threat far greater than any border prince. Thankfully, they seem mostly content to fight among themselves - nevertheless, for humans living in the Iron Claw hills, periodic greenskin raids are a fact of life. Towns of the Iron Claw Hills: Caerfort Turnpike Hollow The Dead Hills Rising clear of the Thornwood's southernmost reaches at the bottom of the Hidden Vale, the smooth, rounded summits of the Dead Hills are a rocky, sand-blown desert. No-one knows why nothing grows there, but one does not have to travel far before even the lichen begins to recede. People tell tales of the lost city of Nath, of sorcerers of the Black Caliph who blighted the hills with their magic. Others speak of the Lost Library, and the meddling of wizards. Only one thing is agreed: the Dead Hills are a fearful, desolate place where only a fool would tread. The Giant's Teeth While the living in the Raven Hills to the north and the Iron Claw Hills to the south in hard, the living in the Giant's Teeth is non-existent. Taller than their neighbours, their sharp crags are little more than barren rock, scoured clean from the west by sandstorms coming off the Pale Waste. Precipitous and perilous, they are prone to frequent rockslides. There are no known passes through these hills, and the locals in the surrounding lands tell stories of all manner of monsters living there to frighten their children. The Bracken Mere A vast swamp that sprawls between the Giant's Teeth and the Thornwood, the Bracken Mere is where the river Azril ends its life. By its border with the Thornwood, the marsh remains wooded - as one goes west, however, the trees die off, giving way to endless reed-beds. There are no certain paths through the Mere - or if there are, the local guides who know them keep them determinedly secret. Local legend says that the Mere was the site of a great battle in ancient times, and that the bog is still choked with the bones of the fallen. The truth of this is up for question, but the local swamp-skimmers do sometimes dredge up strange bronze blades and rotted chariot-wheels from the mire. The Pale Waste A waterless desert of windblown sand, the Pale Waste is remarkable for being even more lifeless and desolate than the Badlands surrounding it to the west. Few landmarks in the Waste stay in the same place for long. Without a skilled navigator, it is easy to wander for days within a few miles of the same point, and it is difficult to find a skilled navigator who will willingly enter the Waste. Among the people of the Reaches, it has a fearful reputation, the locus of all kinds of peasant myths and superstitions. People speak of ancient ruins hidden by the shifting sands, relics of the lost civilisation of Nehekhara. More than one adventurer has been tempted into the Waste by the lure of Nehekharan gold. Few have ever returned.